Gray Rohrer
With two days remaining in the Regular Session, the House and Senate are struggling to find consensus on what could be the state’s biggest pocketbook issue: property insurance.
Bills to prioritize applicants for a program to harden homes against storms, allow surplus lines insurers to take over some secondary homes covered by state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and require insurers to report more data more frequently to the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) could falter in the final stages amid disagreements between the chambers.
On Wednesday, each chamber amended property insurance bills that had already passed the other chamber, “bouncing” the legislation back across the hall.
The House sent back SB 7028 to the Senate, including an amendment doubling the funding for the My Safe Florida Homes program from $100 million to $200 million. The program provides matching grants to homeowners looking to harden their homes against storms. Other parts of the bill prioritize applicants by age and income, with low-income homeowners older than 60 given the first shot at the funds.
The Senate is likely to pass that bill, but the chambers are clashing over two other measures.
The Senate amended HB 1503, which allows lightly regulated surplus lines insurers to take over secondary homes in Citizens, sending it back to the House. The companies must be “A”-rated by the AM Best ratings agency and OIR must approve the take out plan.
The amendment ensured that only non-homesteaded homes would be eligible to be assumed by a surplus lines company. Critics of the move have noted surplus lines companies are not regulated by OIR like admitted carriers, don’t have their rates approved by OIR, and homeowners must sue them in a different state if a dispute over a claim arises.
And on HB 1611, a large insurance package requiring insurers to report more data to OIR on a monthly, rather than quarterly basis, the Senate removed a provision allowing nursing homes to self-insure. Another piece of the bill prohibits insurers from canceling or nonrenewing coverage on a home that was damaged by a hurricane and under a state of emergency for 90 days after the repairs to the home are completed.
Sen. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican sponsoring the bill, also added a provision allowing the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Association to spend 100% of its surplus, but also requiring the group to issue a report on its actuarial soundness by Sept. 1.
The moves put the bills in jeopardy if a consensus isn’t reached in the final two days of the Session.
Rates have skyrocketed in recent years and seven companies have gone bust, a result of devastating hurricanes, jumps in reinsurance rates and, insurers argued, rampant lawsuits.
Democrats have chided Republicans in charge of the Legislature for focusing on social, “culture war” issues at the expense of material issues like insurance. But GOP leaders have pointed to major changes passed within the last two years taking aim at attorneys fees and lawsuits, saying more time is needed to let the market react to the new laws and let the courts clear the backlog of ongoing cases.
12 comments
Michael K
March 6, 2024 at 7:29 pm
The number one issue facing most Floridians, and here we are at the last minute… and nothing.
Tom
March 7, 2024 at 6:47 am
Yep. Culture war or pork barrel issues and they’re all over it – real issues? Not so much. We get exactly what we vote for.
JD
March 6, 2024 at 7:35 pm
So, the Florida GOP is too busy playing political theater to address the exploding property insurance debacle.
As rates skyrocket and the session’s clock ticks down, they’re lost in their culture war obsessions.
Great strategy: Let Floridians’ homes risk becoming underwater—literally and financially—while you squabble over distractions.
Maybe try legislating instead of grandstanding.
It’s not just incompetence; it’s a blatant disregard for the people you’re supposed to serve.
“It’s not the heat. It’s the stupidity”
Nope
March 7, 2024 at 1:11 am
This is by design. First of all they’re incapable of legislating in a way that isn’t either cronyism and anti-consumer, or conversely anti-business which ultimately is anti consumer. Secondly, anyone who can’t afford to pay skyrocketing rates or get special treatment, they want you gone. Replaced. It really is that simple. And the votes keep rolling on in.
Outwitted, Underwater & Uninsurable Florida
March 7, 2024 at 1:34 am
Bad at business and paying the price; Floridiots.
Michael K
March 7, 2024 at 7:24 am
There is no such thing as “the people’s business” to the Republican majority in the Florida legislautre. There is only the will of the lobbyists – who write the legislation – and right wing zealots, who want to control everyone and everything with bland authoritarian (and unAmerican) overreach. Add in standard issue greed and corruption, and you get a tone-deaf legislature that is only concerned with power, not people. And no transparency.
Welcome to the New Confederacy of Florida. Please set your clock back 75 years.
Dont Say FLA
March 7, 2024 at 7:43 am
We make loud noise.
We make big show.
We do nothing,
We say “we tried and we’ll try again next year if you’ll be so kind as to re-elect us.”
We lie.
Joey
March 7, 2024 at 9:25 am
And many peple that homeowners insurance is triple in price go vote republican again. Thats why they dont care.
JD
March 7, 2024 at 12:00 pm
And in that comment lies the truth and the rub. Their short-sighted NIMBY and “I Got Mine, to the h3ll with the rest of you” attitude will eventually come back to bite them.
Like alcoholics, you need to make them the bottom has fallen out before it truly does, because they will bankrupt themselves and the rest of us along with them.
The politicans are just pawns beholded to the best paying lobbyist. Hence why SuperPAC need to be destroyed and campaign financed should a MadMax Beyond Thunderdome arena with limited funds. The biggest innovator take all.
They dont care about Florida citizens
March 7, 2024 at 10:50 am
All signs point towards useless republicans dragging their feet and looking out only for their own best interests. What a complete and total disgrace. Florida voters take note and vote in representatives that will reflect your values.
It's a club and you ain't in it
March 7, 2024 at 7:28 pm
You wrote Florida , Florida voters take note and vote in representatives that will reflect your values…
They already have. That’s the point. People keep electing these rubes according to their values. If you are here commenting in frustration, you are the 1%. They are the 99.
Jake Peters
March 9, 2024 at 8:31 am
Why only AM Best ratings? They walked away from FL after Hurricane Andrew and that was 32 years ago?
Comments are closed.